The present invention relates to upward acting sectional doors. More particularly, the present invention relates to an upward acting sectional door having a flexibly hinged plastic core with metal cladding or a pan door with or without insulation. More particularly, the present invention relates to an upward acting sectional door having integral hinges that allow the door to pass through a very short transitional radius, a metal cladded exterior surface, interior insulation, if desired, and the capability of being packaged substantially preassembled, complete with a counterbalance system and operator installed.
There are numerous doors that are vertically oriented in the closed position and store in an open overhead position that are used as doors for buildings and trailers.
One common construction is a tilting, non-flexible one-piece door. This type of door may be of generally two constructions. The first is a center pivoting door that uses a framework to which the door is mounted that pivots on a horizontal axis proximate to the vertical center of the door. These doors require space immediately adjacent to the door on the inside and outside for the door to open and close. The action of the door makes entrapment possible at the sides and bottom of the door. The second type of one-piece door uses horizontal and vertical tracks to guide the door between open and closed positions. These doors do not require clearance space adjacent to the outside of the door but require a considerable amount of clearance space to the inside of the door to allow the door to open and close. These doors present the same potential entrapment dangers as the pivoting door. These types of doors have been used on buildings but are not suitable as trailer doors in that the inside clearance space needed to open and close the door would significantly decrease the payload of the trailer. Further, if the cargo shifted during transit, the door could be jammed in the closed position.
Another common type of door is a sheet door. Sheet doors have flexible door panels that are guided around rotatable guide wheels between the open and closed positions. When in the open position, the flexible door panel is substantially horizontal to maximize the height clearance in the doorway opening. These doors are made from a flexible plate material that requires reinforcement at the edges. The flexible plate material must be formed into a pivot strengthening profile to give the door adequate strength and must use a rather large drive wheel to move the flexible plates from the horizontal to vertical tracks and from the vertical to horizontal tracks as the door is opened or closed. While increasing headroom or decreasing the hang down of the door into the door opening, these doors are somewhat flimsy and noisy to operate. Moreover, the inability to move the plates through a conventional transitional radius necessitates the use of large diameter drive rollers on either side of the door consuming significant interior space. The bending of the plates around the drive rollers causes undesirable stress on the plates and precludes tolerance to above-normal wind pressure.
Sectional doors are well known in the art. One concern with sectional doors, however, is the entrapment of hands or fingers at the interfaces of the door sections and along the edges of the door. Pinch-resistant sectional doors have been developed with integrally formed section interfaces that eliminate the finger and hand entrapping gaps, but these doors still require additional hardware to perform this function. Similar hardware may be added to a conventional sectional door to perform the same function. To prevent entrapment at the edges of the door, longitudinal mating sections have been added to pinch resistant sectional doors and conventional sectional doors.
As a further disadvantage, sectional doors generally have hinges and other hardware mounted on the interior of the door. If used as a trailer door, this hardware may damage cargo within the trailer or interfere with door movement. Attempts have been made to remove this disadvantage by designing doors with continuous hinges. Generally, these hinges are constructed of polymeric material and may be an integral component of the door or installed as a separate component between the sections. Although these hinge designs can be flush with the back of the door, the pivot point established by the hinge is fixed, thereby creating stresses in the hinge and the hinge attachment areas.
Rolling doors made from a plurality of slats or a sheet of metal suffer a similar buildup of stresses in the hinge because they also have a fixed pivot point. Rolling doors, however, have the advantage of pinch resistance because they are made of a plurality of closely fitting slats. But, due to the shorter height of the slats, a large number of slats are necessary to cover the door opening resulting in the rolling door being heavier and more expensive than sectional doors. These doors also require extensive headroom to store the rolled up door when the door is in the open position. The large number of slats also increases the time necessary to manufacture and assemble these doors. Assembly is complicated by the fact that these doors require the slats to be individually longitudinally interlaced. This interlacing also results in an interconnection which transmits force between slats so that even a localized impact can result in damage to a number of adjacent panels. While the slats are often constructed of sheet steel offering little insulation, additional plastic insulated materials and insulation covers have been added to these types of doors. As will be appreciated, the addition of plastic insulating material increases the weight and complexity of the door, thereby increasing the cost to the manufacturer and the time necessary to manufacture the door. Further, these rolling door designs normally have fixed pivot points with no provision for reducing stresses in the area of the hinges.
Some sectional doors have utilized polymeric materials for door components, including the door sections. In one instance, a door has been constructed of blow-molded polymeric material sections for use on building structures such as industrial, commercial, and residential garages. In another instance door panels having a polyurethane rigid core with a polyvinylchloride front skin and a non-metallic rear skin have been proposed. The rigid polyurethane core unitizes the two skins to make the panel section into a rigid lightweight structure. These known designs require expensive equipment of considerable size, particularly to process a double car width door section. Further, these doors contain conventional hardware such as stiles and hinges, which protrude into the area adjacent the interior surface of the door. Overall, the main difference between a conventional sectional door and these doors is the use of polymeric sections.
Sectional doors with sections from 18-24 inches in height necessarily have a relative angular movement between sections of up to 78xc2x0 when traversing the transitional radius between the open and closed positions. These angular movements of the sections alter the force required to move the door and put stress on the hinge and hinge mounting area. It has been recognized that hinges with multiple bend points may reduce the stress on hinge elements as well as hinges having a plurality of co-extruded polymers to achieve a hinge capable of continuous movements of up to 90xc2x0 or more. The extruded thermoplastic hinge has improved ability to withstand flexure cycles at room temperature as well as low temperatures. This hinge comprises a flexible cross-section of polyester elastomer and a co-extruded section of rigid or semi-rigid thermoplastic material. This type of hinge design is more costly and care must be taken during the extrusion process to assure adequate bonding or encapsulation of the different polymers used to produce the hinge.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an upward acting sectional door in which the body of the door is an extruded corrugated polymer which provides an extent of insulation, without foamed insulating material and backing, as well as noise reduction for a quieter operating door than conventional sheet metal doors. Another object of the invention is to provide such a sectional door wherein the corrugated polymer has relatively high strength, is light weight, is low maintenance in not requiring painting, allows for expansion and contraction without warping the door, and can be produced at relatively low cost. A further object of the invention is to provide such a sectional door wherein the door has minimal intrusion interiorly of the door opening and may have a smooth interior surface which tends to avoid catching on objects in proximity to the interior surface which could cause damage to the object or the door. Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a sectional door wherein the polymer provides a movable pivot hinge function between the door sections.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a sectional door having a body of corrugated polymer which can be coupled with an exterior metal cladding and/or tubular steel inserts to develop sufficient strength and rigidity for a particular door size and specifications. Yet a further object of the invention is to provide such a sectional door wherein end stiles, exterior metal cladding, and tubular steel inserts slide or snap into position to thereby eliminate the extensive use of fasteners or adhesives to interconnect the components of the door. Still another object of the invention is to provide such a sectional door which can be employed with conventional track configurations for sectional doors, but may mount the engaging rollers at substantially the centroid of the corrugated polymer body, whereby with the movable pivot hinge construction the door can negotiate a curved transitional track section between horizontal and vertical track section of approximately one half the normal radius.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a sectional door which incorporates pinch resistant features at the juncture between the sections of the door. Another object of the invention is to provide such a sectional door which does not have projecting hardware at the ends of the door so that finger protection elements may be provided between the door edges and the vertical tracks. Still a further object of the invention is to provide such a sectional door that can employ known counterbalance systems and operators and will accommodate conventional lock systems and windows. Another object of the present invention is to provide such a sectional door which is of sufficiently light weight to be shipped completely assembled with the counterbalance system tensioned and with a motorized operator installed, if desired.
The present invention further provides a vertically operated door including a plurality of door sections rotatably attached to each other, each section having a front surface and a rear surface spaced from each other by an internal structure, the internal structure defining a plurality of encapsulated spaces between the front and rear surfaces which provide a thermal break therebetween.
A sectional door having a plurality of panels joined by a hinge, the hinge having a flexible member extending between adjacent sections; the member defining a first axis and a second axis about which the sections pivot, wherein the axes are moveable during operation of the door such that stresses within the hinge caused by the rotation of the sections are relieved by movement of and about the axes.
A sectional door having a pair of opposed tracks for guiding the door between a closed position and an open position, the tracks having an inner surface, an insert received within the tracks with a polymeric member having a first portion that defines the inner surface of the track and a second portion extending axially from the first portion to at least partially cover the door to effect finger protection.
A door selectively moveable between an open position and a closed position relative to an opening including, a plurality of elongate corrugated horizontal panels pivotally connected at top and bottom edges of adjacent panels by a hinge member defining a first axis and a second axis wherein the first axis and second axis are moveable relative to each other such that stresses within the hinge member created by the pivotal movement of adjacent panels are relieved by the movement of the hinge member about the first and second axes.
A cladding member, in a door system, a cladding member including a generally planar body having a top edge and a bottom edge; a first hook extending from the top edge; and a second hook extending from the bottom edge, the hooks adapted to attach the cladding members to the door.
An end stile in a door system having an open ended channel member adapted to engage the ends of the door sections, the channel members on adjacent sections being in pivotal relationship to each other, each member having a front facer and a rear facer spaced from the front facer by an end extending therebetween, whereby the stiles cover the sides of the sections and move with the sections.
A pre-packaged door kit having a pair of spaced jambs spanned by a header; a first pair of tracks adjacent the jambs, a door having a plurality of corrugated polymer panels pivotally joined by a hinge member, the door being received in the tracks; a counterbalance system and operator attached to the header and operatively engaging the door; a second pair of tracks adapted to be attached to the first and tracks releasably attached to the door; and a back bar adapted to be attached to the second tracks releasably attached adjacent the door.
In a door having a plurality of sections including a top section, the sections being mounted between a pair of tracks which guide the door between a closed and an open position, a pivotal roller attached to the top section by an arm rotatably attached to the top section at one end and a wheel rotatably attached to the arm at the other end, wherein the wheel fits within the tracks causing the arm to pivot from a generally perpendicular position relative to the top section when the door is in the closed position to a generally planar position when the door reaches the open position.
An object of the present invention is to provide as an alternate a sectional pan door system which may be provided with or without insulation. Another object of the invention is to provide such an insulated sectional pan door wherein conventional foam insulation is mechanically retained by door panel components without the necessity for employing adhesives. A further object of the invention is to provide a sectional pan door which has minimal intrusion interiorly of the door opening, which works with a conventional track, and which can traverse a curved transitional track section having a greatly reduced radius without stressing the hinges or hinge areas. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a sectional pan door which is hinged at the end stiles, has pivotal closure assemblies extending the lateral extent of the panels at the edges to provide a pinch-resistant configuration, and may have spaced coupler elements to stabilize the pivot axis of the pivotal closure assemblies.
A further object of the invention is to provide a sectional pan door which does not have projecting hardware at the end stiles so that finger protection elements may be provided between the door edges and the vertical tracks. Another object of the invention is to provide a sectional pan door that can be adapted to a tension-type system for resisting wind loads through the roller assemblies and have a combined roller assembly and counterbalance system cable-securing device at the lower corners of the door. A still further object of the invention is to provide a sectional pan door that is sufficiently lightweight to be shipped completely assembled with a counterbalance system and motorized operator installed and connected, that is relatively inexpensive but strong, and that may be quickly and easily installed.
In general, the alternate embodiment contemplates, an upwardly acting sectional pan door, including a plurality of panels, facers of the panels defining a front surface of the door and having cooperatively engaging couplers at the upper and lower edges thereof, stiles at the ends of the facers receiving and attached to the facers, and hinge assemblies located at the end stiles to provide relative pivotal motion between the stiles and the couplers of adjacent panels.